So my drivetrain is making funky noises. It's been doing so for several hundred miles but its starting to get louder. The sound is like a kid riding his bike with card in the spokes. The only difference is that its a metal card. I might also describe it like if you take a spraypaint can and swirl the ball inside around the round section of the can. I hear the sound loudest from out my rear cab sliding window so I think it's coming from under the bed somewhere. BTW, you can really only hear it when accelerating.

I checked my transfer case and rear axle and they are both lubed. I thought it might be my u-joints but the rear axle doesn't wiggle any and I dont have any extra vibration going down the highway. I was thinking maybe it was one of the bearings in the rear axle but I'm not sure....... If there is plenty of oil in the pumpkin, shouldn't the bearings remain lubed?

Any suggestions on what I might look at? It hasn't broken yet but I'm afraid one of these days going down the highway late at night it'll blow up on me and I'll be screwed.

 

I used to have a Dodge that made the same noise. It turned out to be the catalyc converter. Not sure if that is your problem though.

 

Sounds like it could be a heat sheild rattling loose. On a 95 that could be a good bet. I finally cut the heat shield of the cat on my 88 and that took care of my noise.... floor got a little warmer but the noise was gone.

 

It doesnt seem to be the heat shield. The shile is securely attached. This noise won't go away (except when my friend was going to help me id it). Another descriptor would be the sound of a loud spinning wratchet.

 

It doesnt seem like this thread gets much action but I thought I'd post an update for posterity purposes. The front u-joint of the rear-driveshaft gets very very hot when driving. When I move the driveshaft with my hand, things just dont feel right in the transfer case. This weekend I'm going to replace the u-joints and probably end up dropping the transfer case.

 

I doubt there's anything wrong in the tcase. Ujoints are always a good thing to elminate. You might just change the lube in the tcase and see what the oil looks like. If there's no major metal in it I'd say it is probably fine and the ujoint was what was giving you the funny feeling. I was just out of ideas. Most people describe a squeak when a ujoint is dying.

Anyway, good luck.